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CapitalPress.com
April 13, 2018
Washington apple prices stabilize
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
WENATCHEE, Wash. —
After two months of sliding,
wholesale prices of Wash-
ington apples stabilized in
March, but an analyst warns
that they could drop again in
April.
It’s due to a large 2017
fresh crop that shrank anoth-
er 311,000, 40-pound boxes
through March as diversions
to processing for juice and
sauce slowed. The total crop
was 135.3 million boxes
with 79.7 million sold as of
April 1. Shippers worry Chi-
nese tariffs could slow sales
to China and further pressure
prices.
“April can be a rough
month. Retailers are under
a lot of price pressure with
Amazon coming into the
food business,” said Des-
mond O’Rourke, retired
Washington State University
agricultural economist and
world apple analyst.
“Retailers could pick
on apples as a product they
want lower prices for. No-
body knows what Amazon
will do so retailers are trying
to be proactive and get prices
down in case Amazon buys
Target or Toys R Us,” O’Ro-
urke said.
Amazon acquired 450
stores when it bought Whole
Foods and might want more,
he said.
It won’t help if apple ex-
ports to China are disrupted,
he said. A 15 percent tariff on
top of the 10 percent existing
duty won’t be final for anoth-
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Saul Lopez, a Grandview, Wash., trucker, tightens a load
of small Red Delicious apples at Custom Apple Packers,
Wenatchee, on April 9. The load was being diverted from fresh
sales to a processor in Watsonville, Calif., for juicing.
er 60 days, he said.
China has been running a
trade war with the U.S. for 30
years by keeping most U.S.
agricultural exports out and
stealing intellectual proper-
ties, O’Rourke said. President
Donald Trump has correctly
identified China as an unfair
trader but U.S. exporters will
be unhappy if they don’t look
longterm and China could
stall trade negotiations to see
if Republicans lose Novem-
ber elections, he said.
As of April 6, USDA
tracking of average asking
prices among Yakima and
Wenatchee shippers for extra
fancy (standard grade) medi-
um size 80 and 88 apples per
packed box were: $12 to $15
for Red Delicious, the same
as a month ago.
Gala also stayed even at
$18 to $24 for 80s and $16 to
$22 for 88s.
Fuji stayed even at $18 to
$24 on 80s and $16 to $22 on
88s.
Golden Delicious stayed
even on 80s at $20 to $26
and dropped $1 per box on
88s from $20 to $24 down to
$19 to $23.
Honeycrisp stayed even
on 80s at $45 to $52 and
dropped slightly on 88s from
$45 to $52 down to $44 to
$50.
Granny Smith fell $4 per
box on the low and high ends
of 80s and 88s, from $28 to
$34 on 80s down to $24 to
$30 and from $26 to $32 on
88s down to $22 to $28. The
drop was due to a large crop,
O’Rourke said.
Average wholesale price
of main varieties remained
at $24 per box and at $21.50
without Honeycrisp, he said.
Breakeven averages about
$20 per box with $12 for
packing and marketing and
$8 to the grower, he said.
USDA NRCS
The sediment basin under construction about 2 miles north of Parma, Idaho.
Parma basin will reduce
sediment in irrigation water
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Getting dirt out of the wa-
ter from upstream will help ir-
rigators and river cleanliness
downstream, farmers and ca-
nal company representatives
said as work on a custom-de-
signed sediment basin began
April 6 north of Parma, Idaho.
Irrigation water flowing
down the Farmers Coopera-
tive Ditch Co. canal will enter
the basin at an inlet at the start
of an oxbow-like curve in the
canal. It will flow through the
basin for about 2,000 feet and
allow the sediment to settle,
according to the USDA Nat-
ural Resources Conservation
Service.
The sediment-free water
will re-enter the canal through
an outlet well below the ox-
bow. Inside the basin, a half
dozen raised pads, each 60
feet wide on top and of vary-
ing lengths, will remove sed-
iment.
The basin’s benefits out-
weigh the additional mainte-
nance responsibility the fin-
ished project will create, said
Clint Eells, who manages Par-
ma-based Farmers Coopera-
tive Ditch Co. Member irriga-
tors now get significant return
flow and sediment from the
Black Canyon Irrigation Dis-
trict upstream. Return flow is
water that leaves a field fol-
lowing irrigation.
Eells said the sediment-lad-
en water from upstream even-
tually affects Farmers Coop-
erative members’ equipment
such as drip irrigation filters
and other system components
and sprinklers. The basin will
make the water much cleaner
for the approximately 4,000
member-irrigated acres, and
when it empties into the Boise
and Snake rivers, he said.
Bill Hartman, who farms
east of Parma and is the Farm-
ers Cooperative board vice
president, said one-third or
more of the water the com-
pany delivers is return flow
from water users upstream.
The sediment in it eventually
fouls irrigation equipment and
settles in farmers’ ditches.
The basin, about halfway
down the cooperative’s 33-
mile canal system, will make
it easier for farmers below
it to manage their systems.
“These 4,000 acres will now
be able to use drip-irrigation
technologies,” Hartman said.
Costs include $356,000
for construction of the basin,
maintenance pads, and in-
flow and outflow structures;
about $300,000 in voluntary
contributions for best man-
agement practices involving
NRCS guidance; and another
$300,000 in in-kind contribu-
tions for long-term mainte-
nance, he said.
Funding sources include
$500,000 in matching funds
from NRCS, and contribu-
tions from Farmers Coopera-
tive and Black Canyon irriga-
tion districts; Southwest Idaho
Resource and Development
Council, the City of Parma;
the Canyon County Board of
Commissioners; the Lower
Boise Watershed Council; the
Canyon County Soil Conser-
vation District; and NRCS
in-kind contributions for best
management practices.
Completion of the 8.8-acre
basin is targeted for this fall
on leased farmland. Hartman
said similar projects may be
built later, based on indepen-
dent sediment analysis and
the basin’s success.
NRCS and Farmers Coop-
erative Ditch Co. developed
a water quality monitoring
plan as part of a five-year total
timeline for the basin project,
NRCS said.
Water level in cattle troughs
implicated in E. coli study
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Bacteria thrive in warm
liquids, so it made sense for
veterinary scientists to as-
sume cattle water troughs
would appeal to E. coli mi-
crobes during summer.
Researchers from sever-
al universities theorized that
automatically refilling cattle
troughs with less water — but
more often — would keep
temperatures lower and im-
pede transmission of E. coli
0157:H7, which causes dis-
ease in humans.
They found the exact op-
posite occurred: Among feed-
lot pens with lower water lev-
els in troughs, the prevalence
of cattle expelling or “shed-
ding” that bacteria in manure
was 30 percent higher than in
control pens with regular wa-
ter levels.
The results of the study
were unexpected, but adjust-
ing water trough levels may
still be a viable way to affect
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E. coli’s spread.
While further research is
necessary, higher water lev-
els may be protective because
the bacteria’s presence is di-
luted, said Renata Ivanek, an
associate professor at Cornell
University’s College of Veter-
inary Medicine and an author
of the study.
It’s possible that lower wa-
ter levels allow cattle to dis-
turb sediment at the trough’s
bottom, she said.
Determining the optimum
level of water in troughs will
necessitate follow-up tests,
though.
People become ill from
the Shiga toxins in E. coli
0157:H7 but the bacteria
doesn’t cause problems in
cattle, so farmers don’t have
a direct incentive to vaccinate
against the microbe.
For the meat industry,
however, outbreaks are asso-
ciated with expensive recalls
and damage to reputations.
Roughly 20 people die and
63,000 people become sick
from E. coli 0157:H7 each
year, causing more than $400
million in lost life, lost pro-
ductivity and medical expens-
es, according to the Centers
for Disease Control.
Adding chlorine to water
may be problematic because
the amount needed to be ef-
fective could harm cattle.
Simple and inexpensive
methods to reduce the bacte-
ria may catch on more readily,
said Ivanek. “Manipulating
water levels should be easy to
do. Much easier than, for ex-
ample, vaccination.”
Data for the study, which
was published in the scien-
tific journal PLOS One, was
collected over two summers
from 35 pens at a feedlot in
Texas.
The report was co-au-
thored by 21 researchers from
Cornell University, Texas
A&M University, West Texas
A&M University and Texas
Tech University.
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